This thesis presents an analysis of seventeen high school teachers’ representations of the integration of newly arrived immigrant students and host language learners in three multiethnic schools situated in the Montreal area. Particular attention is paid to the teachers’ evaluation of the different facets of integration, such as acquiring the host language, participating socially within the school, learning curriculum content and participating in the host society. Through the analysis of six focus group interviews, eight host language teachers and nine content area teachers’ roles are explored. Interpretation of the teachers’ discourse led to situating their representations of integration on an acculturation continuum. This inquiry took place within the context of a larger project which sought to describe the different organizational models for the integration of immigrant students from the viewpoint of educational stakeholders in French language public schools in Québec (De Koninck, Z. et F. Armand, 2012).
The results reveal that the second language teachers interviewed focused primarily on the emotional well-being of their immigrant students, while the content area teachers often reported treating all their students equally. However, some teachers’ focus on the status of the French language in Quebec led them to justify institutional practices within the three schools which temporarily segregated immigrant students. Furthermore, the teachers generally shared a tendency to represent the immigrant students’ mother tongue and family environment as obstacles for integration. Regarding the acculturation continuum, while some of the teachers’ representations of integration seem to fit with the intercultural model, others teachers viewed the process as a form of assimilation.